The 2011 Commander decks were a huge boon for the format. They drastically increased Commander's visibility and accessibility. Kaalia of the Vast and The Mimeoplasm are among the most popular commanders in the world, Scavenging Ooze and Chaos Warp are considered staples, and Edric, Spymaster of Trest had to be banned in one-on-one.

So, what can we expect from Commander 2013: The Next Generation? Who is the next Karador, Ghost Chieftain, and who is the next Basandra, Battle Seraph?

Basandra's anti-wizard, pro-lashing rhetoric was

not well-received by the planeswalker community.

Today, I'll be doing an overview of the new Commanders and mechanics. Next week, I'll do an in-depth, deck-building process for my favorite of our legendary new friends.

The Curses

I don't know if these make Curse of Misfortunes good enough, but I intend to find out.

The Curses, much like the Vows before them, are my type of political card. The ability to redirect aggression is very powerful, saving yourself damage while simultaneously harming opponents. It's easy to say, “That effect isn't worth a card,” but when opponents are burning removal on each other's threats, you're in good shape.

Curse of Chaos is probably my favorite because it provides the most meaningful value—the lure of card-draw is hard to resist. Curse of Predation and Curse of the Forsaken are much worse at encouraging big attackers but can provide some good incentives for weenie swarms. Curse of Inertia looks to have the weakest output, but the ability to tap blockers makes it potentially quite powerful. Throwing it on a player with only two or three dudes makes it very unlikely he or she will be able to block anyone at all, and, often, opponents will be attracted by the guaranteed damage even if they aren't really being paid as with the other Curses. Curse of Shallow Graves is probably the weakest overall—I could see wanting a Zombie if I just need bodies for my sacrifice outlets, but a 2/2 that can't block for a whole turn is hardly an exciting reward.

Tempting Offer

I really shouldn't . . . 

Tempting offer meets the primary criteria for effective political cards, which is that they appeal to self-interest rather than goodwill. On the other hand, they violate the tenet that states, “Don't give your opponents a bunch of powerful stuff.”

Tempting people with Reflections, Immortality, and Discovery all have a similar texture—you're gaining a useful effect at a reasonable rate. Others can opt in for the same effect, but you're always coming out ahead of the total value you give opponents. They seem potentially powerful, but I worry a bit about how often they might be dead cards simply because giving the winning player the ability to opt in is unacceptable. I'll also say that Tempt with Discovery is a very odd guessing game in a world where most players have Strip Mine or Wasteland in their decks.

Tempting with Glory or Vengeance is a very different story. It took me a while to figure out what these cards are doing—the effects seem so much worse for the cost. The answer is that these aren't cards for gaining value out of greedy opponents—they're cards for ganging up and killing the guy who's winning. If you're the target and everyone else takes the offer, it doesn't matter what you choose—40 power was just added to the board and will be coming at your face.

The Legends

Derevi is one scary lady. Her activated ability effectively gives her flash, makes her uncounterable, and locks her at 4 mana even if you're not using her to untap a Gilded Lotus.

I can see Derevi leading a number of different archetypes. I've seen some all-flash Bant decks that will love her, she gives token armies interesting and unique utility, and you could go deep on a tap-ability-themed deck. Obviously, there are also a ton of strong infinite combos, starting with Food Chain and including anything that taps for enough colored mana.

Regardless of the path you take, having ways to spend mana at instant speed seems important. Even a small number of attackers can produce a ton of mana by targeting the same bounce land. Ant Queen has a nice dual synergy of spending mana and providing attackers, and Jin-Gitaxias, Core Augur is a very scary guy to flash in mid-combat.

It's pretty obvious what Roon wants to be combined with—a lot of enters- and leaves-the-battlefield abilities. I'd start a list with Mulldrifter, Acidic Slime, Karmic Guide, Duplicant, and Reveillark. Maybe mix in some Primordials.

Note that his ability isn't instant flicker—it doesn't return the creature until end of turn. It doesn't work well with Mystic Snakes, Haze Frogs, or anything else for which timing is crucial.

This Rhino Soldier is no slouch in the red zone either. Feel free to throw a Sword of Light and Shadow on him and go to town.

Jeleva is a bit of an odd duck. She's a 1/3 flyer who wants to cast spells such as Cruel Ultimatum and Army of the Damned. If you cast her a few times, everyone's missing half his or her library. And why does this legendary Vampire Wizard have the same combat capabilities as a Thieving Magpie?

The most obvious thing to consider is good instants and sorceries for Jeleva to hit. There's a bit of a tightrope to walk in that the scarier the spells you hit, the less likely any of your opponents are to let her attack. Spells such as Time Stretch and Rise of the Dark Realms are very likely to get Jeleva killed. Lightning Greaves and Swiftfoot Boots both help her go into the red zone a bit more safely.

Spells with flashback, buyback, and the like can provide extra value off Jeleva triggers. Increasing Ambition, Cackling Counterpart, Seize the Day, and Deep Analysis are high-value flashback cards. Slaughter, Shattering Spree, and Demonic Consultation can be bought back from exile and used turn after turn.

This guy's not really my type of commander. Fortunately, my friend Charles starting working on a list the moment Nekusar was spoiled:

"Nekusar, the Breaking Will"

• Commander (1)
• 1 Nekusar, the Mindrazer

• Creatures (8)
• 1 Snapcaster Mage
• 1 Jace's Archivist
• 1 Phyrexian Metamorph
• 1 Whirlpool Warrior
• 1 Notion Thief
• 1 Skirge Familiar
• 1 Psychosis Crawler
• 1 Consecrated Sphinx

• Artifacts and Enchantments (28)
• 1 Lotus Petal
• 1 Sol Ring
• 1 Sensei's Divining Top
• 1 Mana Vault
• 1 Elixir of Immortality
• 1 Voltaic Key
• 1 Anvil of Bogardan
• 1 Dimir Signet
• 1 Rakdos Signet
• 1 Izzet Signet
• 1 Talisman of Indulgence
• 1 Talisman of Dominance
• 1 Helm of Awakening
• 1 Coalition Relic
• 1 Geth's Grimoire
• 1 Thran Dynamo
• 1 Teferi's Puzzle Box
• 1 Gilded Lotus
• 1 Memory Jar
• 1 Bloodchief Ascension
• 1 Curiosity
• 1 Liliana's Caress
• 1 Megrim
• 1 Underworld Dreams
• 1 Phyrexian Tyranny
• 1 Spiteful Visions
• 1 Psychic Possession
• 1 Tezzeret the Seeker

• Instants and Sorceries (27)
• 1 Force of Will
• 1 Vampiric Tutor
• 1 Mystical Tutor
• 1 Brainstorm
• 1 Dark Ritual
• 1 Echoing Truth
• 1 Cabal Ritual
• 1 Intuition
• 1 Seething Song
• 1 Wheel and Deal
• 1 Insidious Dreams
• 1 Cyclonic Rift
• 1 Winds of Change
• 1 Minds Aglow
• 1 Demonic Tutor
• 1 Reforge the Soul
• 1 Past in Flames
• 1 Windfall
• 1 Molten Psyche
• 1 Yawgmoth's Will
• 1 Wheel of Fortune
• 1 Diabolic Tutor
• 1 Whispering Madness
• 1 Devastation Tide
• 1 Ill-Gotten Gains
• 1 Time Spiral
• 1 Prosperity

• Lands (36)
• 1 Underground Sea
• 1 Watery Grave
• 1 Blood Crypt
• 1 Steam Vents
• 1 Command Tower
• 1 Sunken Ruins
• 1 Graven Cairns
• 1 Shivan Reef
• 1 Veinfire Borderpost
• 1 Sulfurous Springs
• 1 Underground River
• 1 Drowned Catacomb
• 1 Dragonskull Summit
• 1 Sulfur Falls
• 1 Tainted Isle
• 1 Tainted Peak
• 1 Crumbling Necropolis
• 1 Temple of the False God
• 1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
• 1 Cephalid Coliseum
• 1 Volrath's Stronghold
• 1 Bojuka Bog
• 1 Reliquary Tower
• 1 Tolaria West
• 1 Academy Ruins
• 6 Island
• 4 Swamp
• 1 Mountain

Buy This Deck

Prossh reminds me of two commanders I currently play: Hazezon Tamar for leading an army of tokens and Karrthus, Tyrant of Jund for gratuitously unnecessary repeated consonants.

This guy is a beast. He was spoiled months ago, but I hadn’t quite realized how powerful he was until recently. Bringing a bunch of tokens with you is a powerful ability, but adding a sacrifice outlet to that is a big game. How ridiculous is it to play this guy with Fecundity out? What about Grave Pact? Or Vicious Shadows? Even Jar of Eyeballs is scary.

Of course, there are also traditional routes to victory by pumping up your army of Kobolds with Craterhoof Behemoth or Beastmaster Ascension, not to mention the fact that Prossh can often fly in for lethal commander damage in two hits.

Of course, I know the one thing I want to cast with Prossh is Warp World.

Shattergang Bros, for all your edict needs. I like that these guys give Jund something other than a giant Dragon to lead a control deck.

The color combination has no shortage of token creation, so artifact and enchantment fodder is the thing to find. Mycosynth Wellspring and Ichor Wellspring are good starting points—or you can go big with Spine of Ish Sah and Myr Propagator. As far as enchantments go, Rancor is very strong, and Fists of Ironwood is a good way to get several types off one card. Hammer of Purphoros is especially funny since it makes very flexible artifact enchantment creature tokens. Glissa, the Traitor seems as though she'd work well with these guys, too.

What do you get for the legend who does everything?

Marath is powerful and flexible, but very mana-intensive. She can make chump-blockers, screw with combat math, kill utility dorks, or simply Lava Axe opponents out of the game.

She's also a Beast and an Elemental, both of which are relevant creature types. Advocate of the Beast is cute, but Contested Cliffs and Wirewood Savage are where I'd start.

Edric, Spymaster of Trest was intended as a political card who rewarded opponents for attacking each other. However, it turned out that having Coastal Piracy as a commander was so powerful that things rarely made it to that point.

Gahiji provides a more modest benefit. He seems to be a good choice for whatever cross section of people want an anthem for their token decks with additional political benefit but not much else.

Oloro is every control player's dream: hard-to-counter life-gain, powerful card advantage, and an impractically grindy win condition.

You're probably winning any game in which he sticks around for very long, so I'd advise building more around the 2 life a turn than the draw-and-drain trigger. Drogskol Reaver and Archangel of Thune are both fun bombs that benefit from constant life-gain triggers—or you can go the Spikier route with Serra Ascendant, Felidar Sovereign, and Test of Endurance.

Sydri is my favorite of the new legends, which is why you don't get to hear about her until next week.

See you for some deck-building then!